Lots and Lots of Treats

Tommy and I started the tradition of eating pumpkin waffles for Halloween dinner, unbelievably delicious (if anyone wants the recipe, let me know!) Then Kealani got dressed up as a little lady bug and we headed out with Maiya and Papa(grandma & grandpa). Kea's too-too even bounced up and down as she walked! :)

Kea held on to her ever increasingly heavy halloween bucket the whole time.  She said, "Peeeese" (please) at every door, and said thank you as we left.  She was content the entire time, just having fun socializing with everyone.

  

Tom dressed up in his waterpolo gear and parka. Thankfully I talked him out of sporting a pair of speedos!!  Kea fell in love with a little puppy at a neighbor's house. They both kept going for the candy.

  

Well, it was a great halloween night! It was so fun to be out in perfect weather under millions of bright stars.  Kealani figured she'd earned her prize...she unwrapped a sucker and started happily licking away. Her first piece of candy(well, a few good licks anyway)!! As soon as she was in bed, she was sleeping! 

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!!! 

We started the day out at the lake, and Papa (grandpa) came with us!  

We walked two miles and then stopped to play around. Tom brought his RC car, and Kea thought it was the best little pet to chase around.

Then we all got some ice cream cones to celebrate our exercising!! :)  Kea was trying to tell Papa what she wants, actually she would have no idea. The poor kid never gets sweets! (yeah, I am one of those moms).  She had a little, but it was much too cold for her anyway. We get a kick out of watching her face though.

 

Kea and Papa saying HI to Frankenstein.  She went to give Frankenstein a kiss, then turned towards Papa and kissed him instead! Kealani had a blast getting all wet at the fountain. Thanks GG for the cute shirt!! I will post again later with pics from Trick or treating!

Have a Happy Halloween!

Just 'Lei'-in' Around

Well, she must definately have some Hawaiian blood, Kealani loves her leis!  She has a few that she likes to string around her neck and then strut her stuff around the house and definitely in public.  But when we go to Maiya's (Grandma) house she wears them in the dozens. It is so hilarious to see the kid walk around, but you can't even see any kid...there is just a sea of leis!!

Working from home is tough sometimes, but it makes the time in between all that more special. Kea and I fill our day with lots of fun activities and picnics. I love everyday with my little bug, and I am so grateful to be her mommy.

Baby Signing Time!

     The wonderful world of toddlers and sign language!!! Kealani has really caught on to signing, which has made our lives a whole lot easier! We have been trying to teach her, along with the baby signing time DVD's and she has a growing vocabulary. She is now up to 30 words or more! She can sign them all and say them (but it is a lot easier to understand what she is saying when it is accompanied with sign language).  It has been so much fun because she catches on so quickly, everyday she learns something new! It melts my heart when she is tired and looks up at me with beautiful eyes and signs blanket.

Her current vocab includes words like; eat, more, water, milk, cracker (caka), banana(nana),cheese, all done, down, please (peeese), thank you (tee too), sorry (sayee), no, yes, baby, blanket (ben), shoe, socks, hat, hurt (ouwie), bath, potty (pie), change diaper (chay duhduh), wash hands, ball, book, dog-dog, cat, bird, baby, and lots more.

It was really tough cuz the camera would delay, but I got a few pics of her signing.

Hat

 

I told her to sign ouwie, and she did with a sad frown and then came to give my knee a kiss where my hand had been resting.

 

More and Please.

 The sign for eat. She also signed water and then gave me a big grin because she wanted some.

 

Kea couldn't help herself but sign quickly and run and get those objects. So cute! Signing has been so amazing with her.  And I can at least get a small glimpse of what goes through that cute little head!!

GOOOOO COUGARS!!!

Daddy and baby Kea in the proper attire for our Saturday games!!  What a great season we've kicked off this year! Especially the amazing shutout between BYU and UCLA! Go Cougars!!!

California August 2008

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted.  I actually had an unfortunate accident with my laptop and I lost many pictures and videos.  Thankfully a friend in the ward was able to read the hardrive enough to get much of it back. Here are some recent pics.

Where the beach is, there we will be also!! Tommy had another business trip to Cali and he took us along.  We had such a fun time as always hanging out with lots of family and friends!

Kea loves nothing more than a big bed and lots of pillows. She tried to be extremely cute in hopes of making the bed her permanent residence for the night, but the pack n' play was no different  once she finally had her favorite blanky in hand and sang herself to sleep.

   

Meeting up with a great friend and past fellow gymnastics coach at SCATS Gymnastics. We love you Tiffany! It was so great to see you, and many blessings to you in your new opening Gym!!!

  

Kealani's first surfing lesson. This time she loved standing on the boards, and was not as scared of sand and the water as she had been previously.

One of our favorite places we used to visit before we were married, the Long Beach Aquarium.  Kea had so much fun barking at the seals and watching all of the fishies.

Beautiful aquariums on display.  Kea finally fell asleep for a while in the stroller, but when she awoke she had even more energy than before as she screeched and pointed to all the sea life.

Thanks  to Grandpa, Rex, Emily, and GG, we had a blast at baby beach again. Tommy and I switched off between the stand up paddle and the outrigger canoe, trying our best to not fall in. In the end, Tommy didn't succeed and tipped the outrigger over due to a sharp turn.

Our little sea otter had such a great time and we can't wait to go back and play!!!!

Our little bug is growing up!

We've finally got it!! Total piggy tails!! So our cute little Kea came with hair, and then lost it. Struggling to recover from being like pappa, follically challenged, she has finally gained enough hair to pull back into two cute little bunches. Mom is soooooo excited!

Oh mom, I'm too cute to care!!

Kea loves hats, especially when they are from Uncle Nicky and are of the ANAHEIM Angels!

Hey Batter Batter!!

Kea's First Baseball Game :)

The day before July 4th we went to Kea's first baseball game at Tucson Electric park (and it was quite "electric" that night!) Kea lasted the whole game with a big smile and attracted attention everywhere we went.

The most beautiful storm hit while at the game. The clouds gathered and we all got wet, but we had the greatest time! Once the warm rain came on the game was stopped for a little while, but after the rain everything was right back on. Kea was so excited through it all, waving at Sandy Sidewinder (the mascott) and clapping and dancing to the music. She especially loved the firework show afterwards and didn't even notice the noise. What a great memory!!

WE'VE GOT GRASS!

So Heavenly Green...

This is a piece of our yard before. The yard is pretty big and it wraps around the house. It was all rocks out back, very tough , and hot, on the feet. Tommy and I missed lounging around and having picnics in the grass, so we created our own. He spent time doing two others yards as well, and they all turned out so awesome.

After a great amount of hard work, we finally got our grass! Tommy put in 980 sq feet of sod. It is the softest, fullest, grass I have felt. Kea loves it too! Now we have our grass, a gazebo with mosquito netting curtains and patio furniture (so nice to sit in while it is pouring rain outside!), and a nice cool pool to play in. Tom really loves mowing the lawn every saturday, just like his dad use to when he was a kid. We call the grass on the other side of the pool "the football field" because it looks so perfect. Good job Tom!!




Kealani was a little hesitant to be on the grass before. She would just sit in one spot and not dare move while she looked at me with a scrunched up face. Now she loves it... running around and playing, and even trying to eat it now and then!! We love swimming, and Kea even got her own pool and had a play day with her friends. Then we took a break to eat frozen grapes underneath our umbrella from GG (Thanks GG, its perfect!). We love our little baby fishy!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEALANI

HA'OLI LA HANAU

Our cute little one year old!! Walking and trying to talk, this little 'nilla bean' keeps us busy. It has been so amazing to see her grow, and it really does just keep getting better. She is such a friendly, happy baby. She truly is our 'brightness of heaven' as her name signifies. Tom and I love her so much and thank Heavenly Father everyday for a gift like her.

In Hawaiian tradition, the first year is the biggest with a Luau to celebrate the blessing of one year. Kea had a very big Luau of 150 people, the BEST hawaiian food, and lots of dancing. She even performed her own solo to tahitian beats! The decor was beautiful, toole with hawaiian lit lanterns hanging from it, a big picture wall of Kea, beautiful centerpieces with candles and plumeria in a glass bowl, and lots of beautiful plants and tikis. It turned out to be one of the best Luaus ever, thanks to EVERYONE that helped!!

Here I am dancing Kanaka Wai Wai, one of the amazing dances that Tommy's mom choreographed. It was dedicated to her, Love you TuTu Kamalu!!! Tommy getting ready to light the other end of the fire knife by tossing it down hard enough that the flame catches. He did an awesome job, and looked hot as usual!! Love you Babe!


A special cake made for Kealani by Uncle Nicky, last minute too-Thanks Nick, it turned out beautiful!! Once she got over getting dirty by the cake she started to go for it. She would carefully dip her finger in and take a lick with a big smile on her face :). Then she started to share with everyone, putting cake filled fingers in their faces.

Kealani opening her sea of presents. Who knew a kid could get so much stuff?? I think her favorite part was all of the wrapping she got to rip open. :) Happy One Year, Kea, We love you!!

Aloha everyone!